Fred Nicole

Frédéric Nicole more commonly known as Fred Nicole is a Swiss professional climber born in 1970 in Vevey Fred Nicole began climbing at the age of 13 with his brother François Nicole and three years later in 1986 he succeeded in the first repetition of the route Le Toit dAuguste his brother did the 2nd repetition shortly after This route opened by the French climber Patrick Berhault near Nice had been tried by many climbers without success so far Fred then offered a rating of 8b the highest level of difficulty at that time At the end of the 1980s Fred discovered the climbing site of SaintLoup in Switzerland In 1987 he managed the first ascent of Anaïs and Cannabis there the second route rated 8c after Wall Street opened a few months earlier by Wolfgang Güllich in Frankenjura From the beginning of the 1990s Fred Nicole climbed a large number of blocks rated 8A and 8A In 1993 he made the first ascent of Bain de Sang 9a the third route in the ninth degree after Action Directe 9a by Wolfgang Güllich in 1991 and Om 9a by Alexander Huber in 1992 Nevertheless this rating will be challenged several times by its repeaters in particular Iker Pou considering that Bain de Sang is easier than Action Directe and Dave Graham who succeeded in his ascent in just three attempts With this achievement in the ninth degree Fred becomes one of the few climbers to practice climbing at the highest grade both in bouldering and in cliff In 1996 he discovered the sites of Fontainebleau and Hueco Tanks USA where he carried out numerous repetitions of blocks rated from 8A to 8B He also made the first ascent of La Pierre Philosophale 8B in Fontainebleau and The Crown of Aragorn 8B in Hueco But it is again in Branson that he stands out with the first ascent of Radja which becomes the first boulder in the world rated 8B In 1997 he traveled to South Africa in the Rocklands area He made many first ascents of bouldering between 8A and 8B such as Leopard Cave 8A13 and Black Eagle 8B Two years later he made a second trip there and successfully completed Armed Response 8B Oral Office 8B and Desperado 8A a series of blocks opened by Klem Lostok In 2000 he made the first ascent of Dreamtime in Cresciano in Switzerland In 2006 Fred Nicole reached a higher level by performing the opening of Terremer originally rated 8C but downgraded to 8C by his second coach Paul Robinson in 2008 Believing that the difficulty rating is very subjective Fred Nicole often announces his openings with a fork According to him this estimate is more an indication of the difficulty than an absolute truth In the following years he made many openings of blocks and routes of very high level without giving precise quotations He notably made Entlinge 8B8C Lisola che non cè 9A and Boa about 8C In 2000 back in Switzerland Fred tackled an overhanging boulder at Cresciano working an aesthetic line for a season before making an ascent in October 2000 He named it Dreamtime and awarded it the grade 8C making it the first rock to reach this level In March 2015 at the age of 45 Nicole made the first ascent of Azark 8C